Dicey Tales Playtest. We still have Openings for European players

I want to thank everyone for their response to our Dicey Tales  playtest request.

Our U.S. playtest is full. 

We still have two spots open for our European playtest group. If any of you are interested it will be on Tuesdays at 12:00 noon Pacific Time (that’s 8:00pm London time).

Please PM me if you are interested in joining us.

Eeenglaaand!

That was one very funny part from an otherwise very forgettable movie.  I thought of it instantly when I saw the following trailer for a new BBC America series- The Last Kingdom.

I've been enjoying the abundance of historical and quasi-historical shows that have been popping up since the overwhelming popularity of  HBO's Game of Thrones.  It's just another fountain in the  "Geek Renaissance" to splash around in.



From the BBCA site:

The Last Kingdom premieres Saturday, October 10 at 10/9c. It is a contemporary story of redemption, vengeance and self-discovery set against the birth of England. This historical drama comes from BBC America, BBC Two and the Golden Globe® and Emmy® award-winning producers of Downton Abbey, Carnival Films.

Adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling series of books “The Saxon Stories,” by BAFTA nominated and RTS award-winning writer Stephen Butchard, The Last Kingdom combines real historical figures and events with fiction, re-telling the history of King Alfred the Great and his desire to unite the many separate kingdoms into what would become England.

Alexander Dreymon (American Horror Story) heads up the international cast from eleven different countries. Emily Cox (The Silent Mountain) stars as Brida, David Dawson (Peaky Blinders) as King Alfred, Rune Temte (Eddie the Eagle) as Ubba, Matthew Macfadyen (Ripper Street) as Lord Uhtred, Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) as Ravn, Ian Hart (Boardwalk Empire) as Beocca, Tobias Santelmann (Point Break) as Ragnar the Younger, Peter Gantzler (Italian For Beginners) as Earl Ragnar, Adrian Bower (Mount Pleasant) as Leofric, Joseph Millson (Penny Dreadful) as Aelfric and Henning Valin Jakobsen (The Bridge) as Storri.

Set in the 9th century AD, many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Vikings, only the great Kingdom of Wessex stands defiant under its visionary King Alfred the Great (Dawson). It is the last kingdom.

Against this turbulent backdrop lives Uhtred (Dreymon). Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he is orphaned by the Vikings and then kidnapped and raised as one of their own. Forced to choose between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing, his loyalties are ever tested. What is he — Saxon or Viking? On a quest to claim his birthright, Uhtred must tread a dangerous path between both sides if he is to play his part in the birth of a new nation and, ultimately, recapture his ancestral lands.

The Last Kingdom is a show of heroic deeds and epic battles but with a thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity. Combining real historical figures and events with fictional characters, it is the story of how a people combined their strength under one of the most iconic kings of history in order to reclaim their land for themselves and build a place they call home.

Victor Frankenstein | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

This looks really interesting. I love movies set in the late 19th-early 20th century. For bonus XP see if you can catch the "Young Frankenstein" reference in the trailer.  From what I have read some of the folks involved in the movie worked on the Sherlock Holmes movies, which I enjoyed.

Adventures on the 7th sea – Campaign specifics Part I

In any rpg campaign there will be "home rules" reflecting The flavor and tone of the campaign, the specific rule changes and, (of course) a Dungeon Masters preferences and prejudices- Adventures on the 7th sea is no different.  here are a few of the notes I have jotted down (all subject to change of course).

 Character Races

The races I chose for the campaign reflect what I consider to be the more “down to earth” races available in 5^th edition (The exception being the Genasi). In my campaign the Elves stay in the Fey realms, though they do cross the veil from time to time and seduce the occasional maiden (Which accounts for the inclusion of the Half-Elf).

The Races available to PC’s are

Dwarf

Halfling

Human

Genasi

Goliath

Gnome

Gnome, Deep

Half-Elf

Half-Orc

Character classes remain as they are. however, the gods that clerics and paladins serve are of the Deities represented in the area.

Deities

The lists below are a sampling of the deities used in the 7^th sea campaign. these are deities that were not covered in the current 5th edition of the players handbook.  As the player characters come into contact with other peoples I expect this list of Deities to grow.

Sumerian Gods

God	Alignment	Domain	Symbol
Enlil, Ruler of the gods	NG	Tempest, War	Pickaxe
Enki, God of Rivers and Oceans	LN	Nature	Ibex
Inanna, Goddess of Love and War	LE	Life, War	Shepard's staff
Ki, Goddess of Nature	N	Nature	Iris
Nanna-Sin, God of the Moon	CG	Light	Jet black axe over the moon
Nin-Hursag, Goddess of the Earth	N	Nature	Blue-white diamond
Utu, God of the Sun	CG	Light	Radiant sun disc

Babylonian Gods

God	Alignment	Domain	Symbol
Anu,  God of the sky, Ruler of the gods	LN	Tempest, Nature	Gold sun partially blocked by a gray cloud
Anshar, God of darkness and the night	CE	Trickery	Black Sphere
Duaga, Ruler of the devil world	LE	Death	Ruby Mace
Girru, God of fire	LE	Nature	Fire enwrapped axe
Ishtar, Goddess of love and war	N	Life, War	Female hand grasping a blue crystal rod
Marduk, God of cities and storms	LN	Knowledge, Tempest	Blue-white diamond
Nergal, God of the Underworld	NE	Death	Dark-skinned man holding a jet black shield
Ramman, God of Storms and Thunder	N	Tempest	Lightning bolt through a storm cloud

Aegyptian Gods

God	Alignment	Domain	Symbol
Anhur, God of war	CG	War	A cord
Apshai, God of Animals	N	Nature	Praying Mantis
Geb, God of Earth	N	Nature	Earth Hieroglyph
Seker, God of Death	NG	Death, Light	Hawk headed mummy with an Ankh in his right hand
Serket, God of venomous creatures	N	Life, Trickery	Scorpion tail
Shu, God of the Sky	LG	Nature, Light	Female hand grasping a blue crystal rod
Tefnut, Goddess of storms and flowing water	LG	Tempest, Life	Lioness Head
Konshu, God of the Moon	NG	Life	Crescent Moon

And coming soon...

The Bastard Executioner - New show coming to F/X September 15th

It looks interesting. Definitely some filler for my DVR at least.

Adventures on the 7th Sea - Origins of a campaign

I've been itching for a while to try a different type of fantasy adventure campaign than the standard western flavored campaigns I've run in the past. I've always loved the Sinbad stories so I figured I would try using the Middle East as a starting area for my campaign. Taking a further step I decided to incorporate the  Changa's Safari stories by Milton Davis.

Looking though my gaming library I pulled out my copy of Gary Gygax's Epic Aerth supplement for his Dangerous Journeys RPG. Epic of Aerth gave me a great starting point as it's basically a fantasy Earth set in an alternate reality. Many of the names and locales are the same but with just enough of a difference for the players to know that they are not on a historical earth, this also allows me the freedom to ignore earth history when convenient for me and silence noisy players when they whine about some nit-picky fact from actual ancient history.

My system of choice has always been Dungeons & Dragons, and with the recent release of the 5th edition I decided to take a stab at this new campaign using the new rules. For a campaign name I decided of "Adventures on the 7th Sea" since I expect most of our game time spent adventuring in the Indian Ocean region.

I'm hoping to run a campaign where the heroes are a combination of merchants, adventurers, and explorers.  Though there will be dungeon crawls and tomb raiding I want there to also be a bit of commerce going on as well.  I plan on giving the characters a Dhow and a crew and allow them to manage their crew and ship as well as how many torches and iron rations they are stuffing into their back packs.

I realize that this type of campaign isn't to everyone's taste but for a group that's interested in this type of gaming I'm hoping it will prove fun.